er fingers, and keeping her bobbin rapidly spinning away
below, dangling at the end of the thread. To tell the truth, she was
happy in the quietness with Ciccio, now they had their own pleasant
room. She loved his presence. She loved the quality of his silence,
so rich and physical. She felt he was never very far away: that he
was a good deal a stranger in Califano, as she was: that he clung to
her presence as she to his. Then Pancrazio also contrived to serve
her and shelter her, he too, loved her for being there. They both
revered her because she was with child. So that she lived more and
more in a little, isolate, illusory, wonderful world then, content,
moreover, because the living cost so little. She had sixty pounds of
her own money, always intact in the little case. And after all, the
high-way beyond the river led to Ossona, and Ossona gave access to
the railway, and the railway would take her anywhere.

So the month of January passed, with its short days and its bits of
snow and bursts of sunshine. On sunny days Alvina walked down to the
desolate river-bed, which fascinated her. When Pancrazio was
carrying up stone or lime on the ass, she accompanied him. And
Pancrazio was always carrying up something, for he loved the
extraneous jobs like building a fire-place much more than the heavy
work of the land. Then she would find little tufts of wild narcissus
among the rocks, gold-centred pale little things, many on one stem.
And their scent was powerful and magical, like the sound of the men
who came all those days and sang before Christmas. She loved them.
There was green hellebore too, a fascinating plant--and one or two
little treasures, the last of the rose-coloured Alpine cyclamens,
near the earth, with snake-skin leaves, and so rose, so rose, like
violets for shadowiness. She sat and cried over the first she found:
heaven knows why.

In February, as the days opened, the first almond trees flowered
among grey olives, in warm, level corners between the hills. But it
was March before the real flowering began. And then she had
continual bowl-fuls of white and blue violets, she had sprays of
almond blossom, silver-warm and lustrous, then sprays of peach and
apricot, pink and fluttering. It was a great joy to wander looking
for flowers. She came upon a bankside all wide with lavender
crocuses. The sun was on them for the moment, and they were opened
flat, great five-pointed, seven-pointed lilac stars, with burning